Now here’s an interesting article;
Māori have 'gone back like a beaten wife to the abuser',defiant Marama Fox says [Maori TV,
www.stuff.co.nz]
Oops, and here’s another;
Well, the Maori Party has been booted out of the New Zealand
parliament, in last weekend’s general election.
And wait . . . the leaders are ripping into their own voters!
For my international readers, let me set some context before
I go any further. We had a general
election on Saturday. New Zealand’s
proportional representation system (MMP) gives us two votes (two ticks on the
ballot paper); one for your preferred MP (Electorate Vote), and the other for your preferred
party (Party Vote). To complicate things
further, the country has two, parallel electoral roles;
- the general role, where
the country is divided into 64 electorates for all New Zealand voters,
- the Maori role, where the
country is divided into 7 Maori electorates for Maori voters or voters of
Maori descent.
Voters can vote in either role, but must choose which role
they wish to vote in by registering in one or the other before the election.
Traditionally, the Maori Party has contested only the seven
Maori seats in the Maori role.
However,
anyone can vote for the Maori Party in the general role by giving it their
“Party Vote.”
The Party Vote is crucial,
because for any party to sit in parliament, that party must secure 5% of the
vote or win at least one electorate seat.
While Maori could win seven electorate seats, they could have “topped
up” those seats with a higher percentage party vote.
However, the Maori Party reached none of the
two thresholds, and is thus now consigned to the political wilderness for the
next three years.
So, how did that happen?
Well, Maori Party Co-Leader, Marama Fox, is bemoaning the fact that Maori voters have
sided with the mainstream Labour Party again, as they did before the Maori
Party was formed. Labour NZ contested
and won all seven seats in the Maori role, thereby sending the Maori Party back
to obscurity. A bitter Fox likened the
Maori shift back to Labour, “like a beaten wife [gone back] to the
abuser.” Maori Party Co-Leader, Te Ururoa
Flavell, was equally resentful;
“[Flavell] said Māori may have shot themselves in the foot
by going with Labour. If it does turn bad for Māori voters, Flavell said don't
call him for a shoulder to cry on. ‘I hope they don't wake up tomorrow and start shaking their
heads, saying, I feel sorry for you, because I don't want to hear it.’”
Call me old fashioned, but it’s incredibly bad form for politicians to slam
into their support base – even if what they say is the truth. Astute political leaders shrug off such
political shifts by praising democracy then using words like, “We’ll have to do better next
election.” Kicking Maori, the way Fox
and Flavell have done, shows remarkable immaturity, naivety and a distinct lack of
political shrewdness.
Frankly, I have no sympathy for Fox and Flavell (pictured above); the Maori Party sold its soul for a few crumbs. It was invited into government
by the ruling National Party - when National had no need to do so. I think it's fair to say that, the National Party is the party representing the New Zealand establishment; the wealthy, the business leaders, the civil servants and the corporations. So the invite by National was a brilliant piece of counter-thrust politics; a stroke of John Key
genius. Maori were lulled into thinking
they would secure more progress for the Maori people by being in government than in opposition. In reality, the right-wing National
government silenced the most radical party in parliament by wooing them
with trinkets and false promises.
Well my friends, when you bed with the devil, there’s always
a price.
I think voter shift back to
Labour had nothing to do with the Jacinda Ardern effect.
I think Maori voters punished the Maori Party for
cuddling up to the right-wing hacks.
Maori voters clearly perceived no value from the relationship with the monetarists.
All those years of spreading their cheeks for
the National Party, and what was to show for it?
Maori are still over-represented in prisons,
in obesity, in unemployment, in poverty and in domestic abuse figures. No sign of any change there soon.
On Duncan Garner's AM Show this morning, a whining Fox tried to explain what had been acheived by cuddling up to the establishment. She bleated that every Law passed while Maori were part of Government had Treaty of Waitangi clauses in it. Well, big deal! If I was a disenfranchised Maori voter, living on the breadline, I wouldn't see the value either! I'd also stick two fingers up at the party which was supposed to represent me. I think that, sadly, the Maori Party in recent years has represented the Maori establishment - who really benefit from lucrative Treaty settlements - rather than the average Maori in the street. No wonder Maori went back to Labour!
Fox and Flavell’s lack-of-contrition and contempt for their own
people is bad enough.
However, their
unwillingness to take responsibility for the party’s demise is nothing short of
repugnant.
They've taken no responsibility for siding with the neoliberals, taken no responsibility for failing Maori, and taken no responsibility for the real reason Maori voters see a better deal in Labour. Did the Maori leaders really believe
their unholy alliance with the monetarists would have no consequences?!
Why am I also bitter about the Maori Party’s demise? I'm bitter, because there aren’t enough radical parties
in New Zealand’s parliament. Before the
Maori Party went into bed with the devil, I thought they were a party with some
good, radical ideals which this country needed.
This country needs radicalism. We’re
not going to turn back 40 years of monetarism with faint hearts and lovely
speeches about “values.” Only radical
politics and taxing the rich will put an end to the dreadful consumerism and inequality
that has been the hallmark of monetarist economics. But clearly, New Zealand voters don’t want to
hear that. It might be bad form for a politician to slam into their electorate, but I have no such remit or compunction. New Zealand voted for a born-to-rule
sheepshagger and an extra $20 a week.
Crumbs from the rich man’s table [Luke 16:21].
Further Reading;
Erdogan claims, “It is Turkey's sovereign right to decide
for which purpose Hagia Sofia will be used.''
Well, by that moral logic, Israel would have the “sovereign right” to
level the Al Aqsa Mosque to restore the Jewish Temple of Solomon. And that, my friends, is the path to war . .
. 
